http://australianpolitics.com Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:23:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth AustralianPolitics.com no Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://australianpolitics.com/category/issues/indigenous http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/british-media-praises-rudd.html http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/british-media-praises-rudd.html#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:15:12 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/british-media-praises-rudd.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/british-media-praises-rudd.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/nelson-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/nelson-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:03:44 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/nelson-stolen-generations-apology-speech.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/nelson-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html/feed 1 Brendan Nelson,sorry,stolen generations The Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, has spoken in support of the motion offering an apology to the Stolen Generations. - Listen to Nelson's Address: - Listen - This is the text of Brendan Nelson's Address. - Mr Speaker, The Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, has spoken in support of the motion offering an apology to the Stolen Generations. Listen to Nelson's Address: Listen This is the text of Brendan Nelson's Address. Mr Speaker, members of this 42nd Parliament of Australia, visitors and all Australians. In rising to speak in support of this motion, I recognise the Ngunnawal, first peoples of this Canberra land. Today our nation crosses a threshold. We formally offer an apology to those Aboriginal people forcibly removed from their families through the first seven decades of the twentieth century. In doing so, we reach from within ourselves to our past, those whose lives connect us to it and in deep understanding of its importance to our future. We will be at our best today - and every day - if we pause to place ourselves in the shoes of others, imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect. This chapter in our nation’s history is emblematic of much of the relationship between indigenous and non indigenous Australians from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. It is one of two cultures; one ancient, proud and celebrating its deep bond with this land for some 50,000 years. The other, no less proud, arrived here with little more than visionary hope deeply rooted in gritty determination to build an Australian nation; not only for its early settlers and indigenous peoples, but those who would increasingly come from all parts of the world. Whether Australian by birth or immigration, each one of us has a duty to understand and respect what has been done in our name. In most cases we do so with great pride, but occasionally shame. In brutally harsh conditions, from the small number of early British settlers our non indigenous ancestors have given us a nation the envy of any in the world. But Aboriginal Australians made involuntary sacrifices, different but no less important, to make possible the economic and social development of our modern Australia. None of this was easy. We cannot from the comfort of the twenty first century begin to imagine what they overcame - indigenous and non indigenous - to give us what we have and make us who we are. We do know though that language, disease, ignorance, good intentions, basic human prejudices, and a cultural and technological chasm combined to deliver a harshness exceeded only by the land over which each sought to prevail. And as our young nation celebrated its federation, formality emerged in arrangements and laws that would govern the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The new nation’s constitution though, would not allow for the counting of “natives” or for the Commonwealth to pass laws in relation to Aborigines. Protection Boards and Reserves were established. Aborigines in some jurisdictions were excluded from public schools, episodic violence in race relations continued, assimilation underwrote emerging policies and churches heeded their Christian doctrine to reach out to people whom they saw in desperate need. Though disputed in motive and detail and with varying recollections of events by others, the removal of Aboriginal children began. In some cases government policies evolved from the belief that the Aboriginal race would not survive and should be assimilated. In others, the conviction was that “half caste” children in particular should, for their own protection, be removed to government and church run institutions where conditions reflected the standards of the day. Others were placed with white families whose kindness motivated them to the belief that rescued children deserved a better life. Our responsibility, every one of us, is to understand what happened here, why it happened, the impact it had not only on those who were removed, but also those who did the removing and supported it. Our generation does not own these actions, AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/rudd-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/rudd-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:50:09 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/rudd-stolen-generations-apology-speech.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/13/rudd-stolen-generations-apology-speech.html/feed 4 Kevin Rudd,sorry,stolen generations The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has moved the motion of apology to the Stolen Generations, at a sitting of the House of Representatives at 9am today. - Listen to Rudd's Address: - Listen - Watch Rudd's Address: - The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has moved the motion of apology to the Stolen Generations, at a sitting of the House of Representatives at 9am today. Listen to Rudd's Address: Listen Watch Rudd's Address: This is the text of Kevin Rudd's Address on the motion of apology to the Stolen Generations. I move that today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written. We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia. There comes a time in the history of nations when their peoples must become fully reconciled to their past if they are to go forward with confidence to embrace their future. Our nation, Australia, has reached such a time. That is why the parliament is today here assembled: to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul and, in a true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia. Last year I made a commitment to the Australian people that if we formed the next government of the Commonwealth we would in parliament say sorry to the stolen generations. Today I honour that commitment. I said we would do so early in the life of the new parliament. Again, today I honour that commitment by doing so at the commencement of this the 42nd parliament of the Commonwealth. Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great Commonwealth, for all Australians—those who are Indigenous and those who are not—to come together to reconcile and together build a new future for our nation. Some have asked, "Why apologise?" Let me begin to answer by telling the parliament just a little of one person’s story—an elegant, eloquent and wonderful woman in her 80s, full of life, full of funny stories, AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/12/full-text-of-official-apology-to-stolen-generations.html http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/12/full-text-of-official-apology-to-stolen-generations.html#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:10:28 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/12/full-text-of-official-apology-to-stolen-generations.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2008/02/12/full-text-of-official-apology-to-stolen-generations.html/feed 1 http://australianpolitics.com/2007/10/11/john-howard-speech-on-reconciliation.html http://australianpolitics.com/2007/10/11/john-howard-speech-on-reconciliation.html#comments Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:33:31 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/2007/10/11/john-howard-speech-on-reconciliation.shtml http://australianpolitics.com/2007/10/11/john-howard-speech-on-reconciliation.html/feed 2 indigenous affairs,John Howard,referendum,Sydney Institute Listen to John Howard's Speech on Reconciliation to the Sydney Institute: - Listen Listen to John Howard's Speech on Reconciliation to the Sydney Institute: Listen AustralianPolitics.com no http://australianpolitics.com/1998/11/20/statehood-reconciliation-health-bob-collins.html http://australianpolitics.com/1998/11/20/statehood-reconciliation-health-bob-collins.html#comments Fri, 20 Nov 1998 07:24:38 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=3193 http://australianpolitics.com/1998/11/20/statehood-reconciliation-health-bob-collins.html/feed 0 http://australianpolitics.com/1992/12/10/paul-keatings-redfern-speech.html http://australianpolitics.com/1992/12/10/paul-keatings-redfern-speech.html#comments Thu, 10 Dec 1992 08:18:35 +0000 Malcolm Farnsworth http://australianpolitics.com/?p=4877 http://australianpolitics.com/1992/12/10/paul-keatings-redfern-speech.html/feed 0